donm wrote:Had another good game tonight. The main aim was to dicide on our final choice of army for next week and also its make up. Steve had had a better week at work than me, he was in practice competition mode from the start, pointing out the change in the set up rules that I had completely missed.
From the rules, page 69. on ground of their own choosing. Whether defending their home territorry, or invading enemy territory. Cavalry superiority also helped.
So I have Med Germans with 4 cavalry against his arabs. So he gets a ++ for all his cavalry and + for his general, wins the initiative. Me thinking I am the defender, I pick my from my ground. How wrong could I be
. When did this change and why? It has now become critical to win the initiative as you can dicide the game at this early stage. When is any cavalry army going to allow an infantry army any terrain to hide in and when does a defending army get to fight at home? When your opponent does not know any better.
My Med Germans ended up defending in the middle of a desert.
Surely this is wrong
You were not defending because the present system does not have "invaders" and "defenders". It merely determines who has the strategic initiative. What the situation represented was your German army foolishly advancing into the desert and then being attacked - think Horns of Hattin
The present set-up system is not carved in stone. We can change it again if it is unbalanced. Usk will help us decide.
There is plenty of terrain in every territory type except Steppe. Even in Steppe the opposition can choose 4 pieces of rough or uneven terrain.
Whether this causes too much imbalance remains to be seen. If it does, it probably only does so for cavalry armies with steppe listed in their territory types.
In other territory types it does not much matter who has the initiative - both sides get to place 5 pieces including one of the compulsory types.
Unless your Germans got carried away fighting over sun-beds, soft sand is as good as any other terrain at protecting your flanks from enemy cavalry. Even camelry count it as rough terrain.
In my last game, the present terrain system did not stop my 100 YW English (4 LH) from slaughtering my son Thomas's Sassanids (who had the initiative) for the loss of 0 attrition points and only 2 bases of spearmen. (And he normally beats me).
